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10 Things You Can Do To Spend Less Money This Summer

1136586_case_with_dollars_3A friend from college recently posted the following on her Facebook status:

How do teachers not spend so much money over the summer???

I threw a quick response in my typical list-type style, but then I realized these things might benefit some of my readers as well. So here’s the list I gave her:

  1. Go to dollar movies (actually first run movies are $3 where I live)
  2. Find a friend who works on the country club and go play golf for free on his days off
  3. Practice guitar (for church) and trumpet (for mariachi)
  4. Go to the park (disc golf is cheap)
  5. Budget and use cash for all purchases
  6. Our bowling alley has $1 Tuesdays and buy one get one free on Mondays — there may be similar discounts around you
  7. Bible reading
  8. Clean the house
  9. Play games online
  10. Respond to friends’ status updates on Facebook

They may not be the most culturally involving things around, but each community has local festivals and free things throughout the summer. I know lots of symphonies have concerts in the park throughout the summer. Even my local community has a musical performance every Friday at the plaza downtown. These are free too.

Something else I might add is to read The Simple Dollar and The Total Money Makeover (frequently available on Dave Ramsey’s website for $10 — including now).

Joel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.

Joel Wagner
Joel Wagner (<strong><a href="http://www.twitter.com/sywtt">@sywtt</a></strong>) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. <strong><a href="http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/">So You Want To Teach?</a></strong> is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.
http://www.SoYouWantToTeach.com

7 thoughts on “10 Things You Can Do To Spend Less Money This Summer

  1. A great list, but in Texas, from now until school starts, it’s so hot out it is unsafe to play outside! My kids and I spend a lot of time at the mall – play area, ice skating, etc, which ends up costing money, too! The pool is great, but when its 105 out, the water is 90 degrees!

    1. True, Lisa. I live in South Texas and know how hot it gets. The nice thing about having a friend who works at the country club is that when we play for free, we don’t feel the obligation to finish the round if it gets too hot or late. :)

      I’m a huge fan of doing things inside in the summer for cheap or free. Even walking around a mall without any money can be eye-opening.

  2. I’d add game days – my teacher friends and I are rotating houses and playing board games every couple of weeks. We make it a potluck and it’s all kinds of fun.

    And of course, you can always write new blog entries! :)

  3. Around St. Louis we have free seats at the MUNY Opera, which is one of the largest outdoor musical theaters in the world, the Missouri Botanical Gardens with wine tasting on Thursdays, the free St.Louis Zoo, also world-renowned, and cheap golf at Forest Park, site of the 1904 Worlds Fair, free Anhueser-Busch Brewery tours with two complimentary cups of beer of your local AB product (hmmm. seeing a trend here). The MLB All-Star Game is next week and there is a ton of stuff to do downtown, and there’s the opening of a CityGarden sculpture park across from the stadium. If you’re into that kind of thing. I’m not so much.
    Every community has free band concerts, and bars all have happy hour specials in those areas. Jill and I like to catch up on our movie watching, hanging out in the lovely air-conditioned family room, no interruptions and free popcorn and beer. Then there’s just hanging at the pool with the nutty grankids, or going to the driving range to work on that dang slice.
    Ah, summer. Say what you want about teachers getting this perk… can’t hurt MY feelings.

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